1957 Ford Country Sedan mocha silver V8 4dr wagon

[djfordmanjack]

Jay, I did inspect the rear rope seal, when I replaced the rearmost main bearings, and the rope seal still looked very good. so I did not even try to replace with modern poor quality.
It does leak a few drops, but minimal. when the engine is driven. its a little more in winter when the car is garaged for a long time. There is a drip pan below my car and its hardly 4 or five drops after an extended drive. most of which is coming from the road draft tube.
I did not do any welding to the lower door sections at all. there were just very minor rust pittings /small holes and I removed some of the seal channels, beacuse they were loose. If somebody wanted to restore the 57CS it would just be a few hours of taking them back to solid metal and minor bodywork. Since I am not planning on restoring this particular car, I just left it all alone and rather emphasized on keeping it all original, including the all og paint in the door jambs and inner door areas. I feel that on this particular car keeping it as og as possible is the way to go. It's a 100k SF Bay one owner survivor in my favorite color combo, so that's good enough for me !

[travis20]

Dj Im dave from carver with the red  and white Ranchreo

[terry_208]

Jay, I did inspect the rear rope seal, when I replaced the rearmost main bearings, and the rope seal still looked very good. so I did not even try to replace with modern poor quality.
It does leak a few drops, but minimal. when the engine is driven. its a little more in winter when the car is garaged for a long time. There is a drip pan below my car and its hardly 4 or five drops after an extended drive. most of which is coming from the road draft tube.

If it were me I might have been tempted to do the old trick of taking a small drift and sinking it into the sides of the top half of the seal.  Then taking pieces of another seal and filling the small hole.  This tightens the seal and hopefully stops the seepage. 

[fdlrc]

DJ,
I really like the pics of the cars and the detailed explanation of your engine work. Question: you mentioned cleaning the coal from your oil pan, I take it you are referring to sludge or is it something else? Thanks for answering the dumb question of the day.

[RICH MUISE]

With gas at 9.00 plus a gallon over there in Austria, DJ might just have figured out how to convert to coal, lol.
Probably just a translation difference, although DJ's English is better than 95% of us.

[djfordmanjack]

Sorry guys, lost in translation probably. May even be a term that I picked up from crazy Australians or British guys.... yes, we do refer to carbon build up in engine/combustion chamber/exhaust as to 'coal'. because thats what it actually looks like and is. My bad though! 
you couldnt really call the residue in the oil pan, sludge. I think. it did not contain any water at all. It was a mix of sticky and nearly grease weight old oil mess ( parafin ?), containing lots of smaller carbon particles (maybe 1/32 to 1/16 size). Most of that got filtered out with frequent oil and filter change ( found a lot of that when cutting open used filters). But obviously the stuff trapped in that thick greasy stuff in the bottom of the oil pan would never come out again except with a scraper.
Well thanx Rich, very flattering, but I know that nobody can learn a second language so well that he could ever make up with a native speaker. Listen to Arnold. He's been over there for 50+ years, and he is good. But.... 

Hello Dave, nice to know you are also here on the forum !
One time I would love to fly over again and meet all of you guys at the Friday cruise or somewhere else !

Terry, I did something similar for the rope seal, I did drive it in a little with a small drift, and then sealed the gap with natural rubber sealant.
So far it seals quite well and there are just a few drops after an extended drive. I would not expect a 60 y o engine to be tht super dry underneath.

[hiball3985]

The stuff in the pan was typical of engines from the 50's and early 60's that ran oils like Quaker Sludge as we called it but all of the oils did it and a lack of regular oil changes and too low engine temps all contributed. I spent countless hours scraping the crap off engines before the machine shop would even except them to put in their HOT tanks  .

Off topic but congratulations to the solo Austrian women who kicked ass over all the top team bicycle riders in the road race..

[mustang6984]

Quaker State and Pennzoil are the worst oils out there for leaving sludge in your engines/pans. They come from oil fields in the Penn State area that have a very high content of natural paraffin.

(I worked in the oil field in my 21st year on this planet...amazing the things you learn and retain when younger...some useful...some...well... )

[Ford Blue blood]

The one thing I have learned over the years is many of us don't "heat soak" the drive trains as often as they should be.  Short trips to the cruise ins and to the store just add moisture to the parts and it remains.  Heat soaking drives out the moisture and helps prevent acid from forming.  I tell most of the "newbees" to the old car world I meet and discuss things with that they should do a 100 mile round trip at least once a month to keep things fresh.

The other thing I do is paint all the cast iron on the inside of the engine with glyptal (sp?) to assist with oil drain back.

[djfordmanjack]

yes Bill.
Usually I at least paint the oilpan inside on rebuilt engines. makes cleaning a lot easier and no chance for rust.
It nearly hurts driving old cars around town for extended periods, maybe even stop and go only. Always feels much better to stretch their legs at 65+ on the Autobahn! 

Hardly start a vehicle just to move them around except for dry summer days. Usually I try to warm up the engine fully, especially in damp cold weather conditions.
I have to say that usually the oil in my engines is quite ok. Since I changed the oil in the 57 and have driven it for 200 miles or so, the dispstick now still shows clear fresh oil, So it seems I have gotten rid of most of the residue and sludge in the engine by now. it starts and runs very nicely.

[1930artdeco]

Hi DJ,

What chemical did you use to clean out the oil pan? I know scrape and remove the large chunks but did you use anything like kerosene to clean the screen to the pump? I have to do that on mine soon.

Mike

[djfordmanjack]

Mike I usually use industrial paint thinner (terpentine or enamel based thinner) and then rinse the precleaned ( with brush and scraper and rags) pan with brake cleaner ( spray can). that works well for me and the brake cleaner removes trapped dirt from the tight creases. Since this oil pan is og to the 57 engine, it has sort of a baffle plate, about 1/2" or so above the flat part of the pan ( rear). I needed to bend a coat hanger and certain other wires to scrape that hidden area. a lot of dirt came out of there. It appears as if this baffle should help in draining back oil from the rear main seal, and still allowing the splash from the crank and rods draining back over the baffle.

[1930artdeco]

Thank you. I saw the baffle and wonder if it will pop out like the A's do but I have not looked closely at it. Right now I am trying to get the pinion gear back in, I just have to line everything up correctly.

Mike

[djfordmanjack]

No it is spot welded in place.

[djfordmanjack]

another round of flushing radiator and block.
The coolant looked sore, so here we go. it's interesting how much loose debris and rust particles come washed out with all the citric acid and pressure washing treatment. Showing how much stuff is trapped inside the cooling circuit.

Look Jim, we caught some cheese bugs again...

It was also mandatory to get the car on the lift and drain the lower block rails with engine running and fresh water fed to the radiator filler neck. Water coming from the lower drain cocks is great news because usually on Flatheads and Y blocks all the lower channels of the block are clogged with sand, rust and sediment.

beautiful green coolant now after 100 miles.